Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/499

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 477 Barbarians and the support of the republic ; and his new favourite, the eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor from the supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the life of Placidia/^ by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of Aetius, his wealth and dignity, the numerous and martial ti-ain of Barbarian followers, his powerful dependents, who filled the civil offices of the state, and the hopes of his son Gaudentius,"^ who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's daughter, had raised him above the rank of a subject. The ambitious designs, of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as well as the resentment, of Valentinian. Aetius himself, supported by the consciousness of his merit, his services, and perhaps his innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and indiscreet behaviour. The patrician offended his sovereign by an hostile declaration ; he aggravated the offence by compelling him to ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and alliance ; he proclaimed his suspicions, he neglected his safety ; and, from a vain confidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was incapable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his person in the palace of Rome. Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate vehemence, the marriage of his son, Valentinian, drawing his sword, the first sword he had ever drawn, plunged it in the breast of a general who had saved his empire ; his courtiers and eunuchs ambitiously struggled to imitate their master ; and Aetius, pierced with an hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal presence. Boethius, the Praetorian prsefect, was killed at the same moment ; and, before the event could be divulged, the principal friends of the patrician were summoned to the palace, and separately murdered. The horrid deed, palliated by the specious names of justice and necessity, was immediately communicated by the emperor to his soldiers, his subjects, and his allies. The nations, who were strangers or enemies to Aetius, generously deplored the unworthy fate of a hero ; the Barbarians, who had been attached to his service, dissembled their grief and resentment ; and the public contempt which had been so long entertained for Valentinian was at once 73 Placidia died at Rome, November 27, a.d. 450. She was buried at Ravenna where her sepulchre, and even her corpse, seated in a chair of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. [Her Mausoleum (the church of S. Nazario and S. Celso) and her alabaster sarcophagus are still preserved ; but her embalmed corpse was accidentally burned by some children in A.D. 1577.] The empress received many compliments from the orthodox clergy ; and St. Peter Chrysologus assured her that her zeal for the Trinity had been recompensed by an august trinity of children. See Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. torn. vi. p. 240. ■'■* [Aetius had another son named Carpilio, who was for years a hostage at the court of Attila, as we learn from Priscus.]